Israeli-American’s body recovered in Gaza among six dead hostages

Jerusalem: Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among them.

“According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.

Families and friends of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza display 107 pictures of hostages as they protest outside the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.Credit: AP

News of the discovery spurred renewed calls by Israelis demanding a hostage release deal and claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had abandoned the hostages. Fresh protests are likely.

The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been found underground in the city of Rafah and returned to Israel, he said.

“The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces,” said President Isaac Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial. “I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologise for failing to bring them home safely.”

There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu, who is under pressure at home and abroad to reach a ceasefire deal that includes the release of remaining hostages.

Hamas did not immediately comment on the accusations.

US President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.

“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

Days earlier, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometre away, Israel’s Hagari said.

After Alkadi was located, troops were told to be cautious because other hostages might be in the area, but there had been no precise information on their location, he said.

The six recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages taken in Hamas’ killing spree through southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in the assault, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Goldberg-Polin, captured at a music festival near Gaza, appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.

“He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world,” Biden said. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, “have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” he said.

“They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express,” the president said.

Biden vowed that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement: “I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world.” Harris said she would never waver on working to free all those held hostage in Gaza.

Earlier, speaking to reporters in Delaware, Biden said he was “still optimistic” about a ceasefire deal to stop the conflict.“I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” he said. “It’s time this war ended.”

Reuters.